Flung Fire

A remarkable phenomenon was observed at Kattenau, near Trakehnen (Germany), and in the surrounding district, on March 22. About half an hour before sunrise an enormous number of luminous bodies rose from the horizon and passed in a horizontal direction from east to west. Some of them seemed of the size of a walnut, others resembled the sparks flying from a chimney. They moved through space like a string of beads, and shone with a remarkably brilliant light. The belt containing them appeared about 3 metres in length and 2/3 metre in breadth.

— Nature, May 20, 1880

| Oddities

Bedtime Reading

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In a 1952 survey of 200 traditional nursery rhymes, Geoffrey Handley-Taylor found that about half were “glorious and ideal for the child.” The others contained:

  • 8 allusions to murder (unclassified)
  • 2 cases of choking to death
  • 1 case of death by devouring
  • 1 case of cutting a human being in half
  • 1 case of decapitation
  • 1 case of death by squeezing
  • 1 case of death by shriveling
  • 1 case of death by starvation
  • 1 case of boiling to death
  • 1 case of death by hanging
  • 3 cases of death by drowning
  • 4 cases of killing domestic animals
  • 1 case of body snatching
  • 21 cases of death (unclassified)
  • 7 cases relating to the severing of limbs
  • 1 case of the desire to have a limb severed
  • 4 cases relating to the breaking of limbs
  • 1 allusion to a bleeding heart
  • 1 case of devouring human flesh
  • 9 threats of death
  • 1 case of kidnapping
  • 12 cases of torment and cruelty to human beings and animals
  • 8 cases of whipping and lashing
  • 3 allusions to blood
  • 14 cases of stealing and general dishonesty
  • 15 allusions to maimed human beings and animals
  • 2 allusions to graves
  • 23 cases of physical violence (unclassified)
  • 1 case of lunacy
  • 16 allusions to misery and sorrow
  • 1 case of drunkenness
  • 4 cases of cursing
  • 1 allusion to marriage as a form of death
  • 1 case of scorning the blind
  • 1 case of scorning prayer
  • 9 cases of children being lost or abandoned
  • 2 cases of house burning
  • 9 allusions to poverty and want
  • 5 allusions to quarreling
  • 2 cases of unlawful imprisonment
  • 2 cases of racial discrimination

“Expressions of fear, weeping, moans of anguish, biting, pain and evidence of supreme selfishness may be found in almost every other page.”

| Literature

“That”

I’ll prove the word that I have made my theme
Is that that may be doubled without blame,
And that that that thus trebled I may use
And that that that that critics may abuse
May be correct. Yet more–the dons to bother–
Five thats may closely follow one another:
For well ’tis known that we may safely write
That that that that that man writ was right.
Nay, e’en that that that that that that followed
Through six repeats the grammar’s rule has hallowed,
And that that that (that that that that began)
Repeated seven times is right! Deny’t who can.

— Anonymous

| Language

Trouble Along the Way

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In September 1955, James Dean met Alec Guinness outside an Italian restaurant in Hollywood. He introduced himself and showed Guinness his brand-new Porsche 550 Spyder. “The sports car looked sinister to me,” Guinness wrote in his autobiography:

Exhausted, hungry, feeling a little ill-tempered in spite of Dean’s kindness, I heard myself saying in a voice I could hardly recognize as my own, ‘Please, never get in it.’ I looked at my watch. ‘It is now ten o’clock, Friday the 23rd of September, 1955. If you get in that car you will be found dead in it by this time next week.’

Dean laughed. One week later he collided head-on with a Ford coupe outside Cholame, Calif. He was pronounced dead 6 days and 20 hours after Guinness’ prediction.

| Death · Entertainment · Oddities

“A Curious Dilemma”

A leading paper decides that the plural of titmouse is titmouses, not titmice. ‘On the same principle,’ says another paper, ‘the plural of a tailor’s goose is gooses, as, indeed, we hold that it is.’ This reminds us of an anecdote with regard to a country merchant, who wanted two of these tailor’s irons, several years ago, and ordered them of Messrs. Dunn and Spencer, hardware merchants. He first wrote the order: ‘Please send me two tailor’s gooses.’ Thinking that this was bad grammar he destroyed it, and wrote as follows: ‘Please send me two tailor’s geese.’ Upon reflection he destroyed this one also, for fear he should receive live geese. He thought over the matter till he was very much worried, and at last, in a moment of desperation, he seized his pen and wrote the following, which was duly posted: ‘Messrs. Dunn and Spencer,–Please send me one tailor’s goose, and–hang it! send me another.’

— Tit-Bits From All the Most Interesting Books, Periodicals, and Newspapers in the World, Oct. 22, 1881

| Language